News

The Financial Times recently reported that Google, the Internet search company has started phasing out Microsoft’s Windows operating system due to security concerns. Employees at Google who were interviewed said most of the internal computers used by the company were being migrated to Linux or Mac operating systems . You’ve probably heard about Apple’s Mac OS, but what about Linux? What is it?

Linux is a free and open source operating system that runs ninety one percent of the world’s fastest supercomputers. You may not realize it, but when you log onto Google’s GMail or Yahoo! Mail, it is likely that the server you are using runs Linux.

Linux has been making waves lately not only because of its increased adoption on personal computers, but also because it has become the number one software platform choice for smart phone makers. Google’s Android and Nokia’s MeeGo mobile operating systems are all Linux derivatives. This means that your next mobile phone could very well be powered by Linux.

But you might be asking your self why all this matters to you, after all you are already running Microsoft’s Windows operating system that everyone or business you know uses for personal computing.

It matters a whole lot. Using Linux will provide you with a safe and secure computing environment while saving you time and money. Unlike Windows, Linux has long been a secure, reliable, and low cost operating system. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider using Linux:

1)Its Free. You may not know this; but every copy of windows costs money. Linux on the other hand has no licensing fee regimes associated with it. It comes free of charge. You really can’t beat this fact considering the tough economic times we live in. Any reduction in the cost of computing is a welcome relief. To get Linux, all you have to do is download it from the Internet. Take a look at some of the download sites below.

2)Its Virus Free. That’s right – say goodbye to those pesky viruses and spy-ware programs when you switch to Linux. There’s no need to run that favourite anti-virus tool anymore because the Linux operating system is built with your protection in mind. For businesses that experience down time and costly expenditures as a result of viruses and worm infections, switching to Linux can lead to a significant increase in cost savings and productivity.

3)Its Secure. Many times, I am called upon by a relative, friend, or business to fix a Windows PC. Not surprisingly, these troubled PCs tend to suffer from the same problems you see on your computer: You name it; slow speeds, unresponsive applications, viruses, ad-ware and spy-ware. These annoyances stem from the lack of constant maintenance and updates, which the Windows operating system requires. You’ve probably heard your IT administrator tell you that you need to frequently download and install updates to keep your system safe. In fact most of the security exploits out there take advantage of un-patched machines. But how often do you get the time or even the Internet access to do that? I will tell you what I tell my clients: You no longer have to put up with this! Linux is the way to go.

4)Its stable. Linux is renowned for its stability. Linux systems have been known to run for years without crashing or being rebooted! Did you know for example that NASA (You know, the guys that send folks into space?) run Linux for their mission critical applications? Its no wonder that most of the world’s Internet and web hosting servers run Linux. See the numbers for yourself at Netcraft

5)Its fully packaged. Forget what you might have heard, Linux has all the applications you need to do your work. Some of the programs packaged with Linux are far superior compared to their Windows counterparts. For example, there are several free Office suites such as OpenOffice.org; Email clients such as evolution; Internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, and financial management packages such as GnuCash. If you are a fun of Skype, there’s a Linux version. If you’re a social networking blogger, there is a client package called Gwibber with support for facebook, twitter, identi.ca, Flickr, digg etc. I could go on and on. The point here is that if you use a standard software application, then chances are that a Linux version is available.

6)Its supported. Several support services exist for Linux users. For businesses, several successful companies such as Red Hat, Canonical, and Novell exist. These vendors provide long term support services to companies worldwide who need Linux support. For an individual user, in addition to the extensive manuals and off-line help materials packaged with Linux, the Internet provides many support forums and resources aimed at helping Linux users. If you have a problem, some one else in the world has probably asked about it, and the solution is readily available. Just Google it!

7)Its the future. Due to its stability and flexibility, the Linux operating system is fast becoming the operating system of choice in most embedded devices. From all those fancy smart phones, TV set-top boxes, microwaves to car gadgets, Linux is running the show. There is a reason why the world’s developers, and manufacturers are saying no to windows in favor of Linux.

When a company with more than 20,000 employees such as Google decides to ditch Windows, the message is clear: using windows is no longer safe! Join others who have chosen to enjoy computing the way it was meant to be, with less risks. By the way, its not only Google that is phasing out Windows, other major institutions such as the London and New York Stock Exchanges have made the switch. Governments and companies from Brazil to New Zealand have decided to adopt Linux and free software.

To start using Linux today, you should download the installation disk image(s), burn the image(s) to CDs or DVD, insert it into the drive and then follow the easy step by step installation process.
Linux comes in several “flavors” (commonly referred to as distributions). For starters, go with a distribution like Ubuntu. If you are a power user, other variants of Linux exist. I recommend Fedora, the free and community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. You can also try OpenSUSE. All these three are suitable for home and office use. Also, if you want to just try Linux without installing it on your computer hard drive, you can burn a Live CD or USB flash disk distribution such as Puppy Linux.

You can download Linux at the following sites:

Ubuntu

Fedora

OpenSUSE

Puppy Linux

Happy May Day!

Wishing you a happy may day. Here in Uganda, as in most countries, its a day off. But wait, its Saturday!

A news story of interest:

A major change in the way the Internet domain name system works takes place on May 5 at 17:00 UTC (which is about 8pm East Africa time). Details are at:

Yeah, I know I’ve been away for what seems like a very very long time,
so figured the best time to get back would be now when the year is still not yet out.

I especially want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or what
ever you celebrate … And may 2010 be the year when your dreams are
fulfilled.

For an update on what’s been happening, please visit the AEx News Site

Enjoy and see you in the new year!

Back, from a long break , more like I’ve been busy. Two articles caught
my eyes this week

First: The New Vision, a leading daily newspaper in Uganda reported that
Microsoft has hired some lawyers in Kampala, to help them fight software
piracy especially illegal copies of Windows. As rightly noted by the
paper, very few people realize the adverse impact, such ‘a war on
software piracy’ could have on local business. Its estimated that up to
95% of Windows OS copies in use around the country are not genuine.

Second: Microsoft disclosed the pricing of Windows 7, the next major
release from Redmond, WA. Basically the full version of Windows 7
Professional is $299.00, with upgrades going for $199.00 per copy. You
can read more at: here

Well what is the alternative for Ugandan business and individuals who
can not afford these costs and wish to avoid penalties for using
illegal copies of windows?

You guessed it – Linux! Try it today, and you’ll ask yourself why you
never switched a long time ago. Linux is very stable and will free you
from all those viruses/malware and instabilities you have grown
accustomed to while using windows.

Just a quick update on my family:

This weekend the Zikusookas welcomed the newest member of the family, Jasmine Malaika.

Mona and Jacob, congratulations on your new born child. We are all happy for you …

If you have not yet heard, virtualization is a technology that allows you to run multiple operating systems on a single computer including Windows, Linux, BSD and more.

Assuming your company or organization runs five (5) physical servers today, With Virtulization, only one (1) physical server is needed. The cost savings are tremendous. Virtualization dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications in your organization.

Lately, I have been using FreeBSD guests under VirtualBox 2.2.2. You can read about Sun VirtualBox (Now under Oracle) at: http://www.virtualbox.org.

One thing that does not work out of the box is USB on Linux hosts especially Red-Hat derivatives such as Fedora. I know several people out there who are having difficulties connecting USB devices such as flash disks, USB printers, cameras etc to VirtualBox

I have posted a FREE bash script to help you resolve it. After running this script, your USB devices attached to your VirtualBox host machine will be visible to guests. Cool! You can download script at:

My VBox USB Script

Looks like Uganda Telecom (UTL) mobile phone subscribers are experiencing difficulties today. My UTL connection has been on and off all day … actually there was a complete outage from yesterday till mid day – my goodness I can’t stand it! Just curious, I thought I outta check out the company’s website for any mention of it, but then again what am I thinking – this is Uganda. So we get disconnected and no one takes accountability. Unbelievable!

Am back after a long week traveling. I spent much of last week in my home town of Soroti. It was a welcome change from the busy and hectic schedule.

I drove east-ward on Tuesday. My observations:

The state of the roads have somewhat improved. For those who remember, the Jinja to Bugiri road two years ago was a real nightmare. Well after all those years of waiting and waiting , it seems the road is almost complete and only took me 30 minutes to get from Jinja to Iganga versus the previous 70 minutes. Not bad. Well not bad, until I heard a couple of day’s ago that a bus accident killed 12 people due to over-speeding. The accident occured between Iganga and Jinja on the Tirinyi road. My condolences to all those affected by this loss

Am now back. Spent much of this week doing some post upgrade cleanups for AEx hosting. Till next time …

Like most parts of the world, It’s a public holiday here in Uganda.

The whole of my neighbourhood lost power today morning at 3am. Restored at 8am, however my house was still off. Turns out there was a fault at the transformer. After several futile calls to the power company’s call centre, I decided to call the local guys. Thanks to Joseph at UMEME in Entebbe, power at my house was reconnected at 1pm.

Other than getting a day off (plus a long weekend) I suspect for most of us, Labour day is no longer significant. By the way, when I lived in the US, I always wondered what it would have been like to have this day off. One thing, today’s national celebrations were held in my home town of Soroti (http://www.soroti.org)

Happy May day everyone.

This week my web hosting company, AEx (http://www.aexhosting.com) completed its three month migration process to the new servers.

Its been quite a challenging week, not only because we had to migrate servers that were installed almost six years ago, but our local ISPs were also having problems of their own.

This blog is somewhat of a nice outcome of all of this.  I hope I can now keep everyone updated on this site.